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Questions from a brand new pumper!

So I am planning to go back to work in January for 1-2 hours a day a few days a week. I will be pumping and leaving bm for my mom to give to Abby while I am at work. My LC told me only to pump after I feed Abby and on the same side, but she drinks me dry and all I ever end up getting is an ounce, at most. So when is the best time to pump without messing up my supply. I also am not sure that my pump is working as it should, since the flow seems to stop and every five minutes I end up having to adjust my nips for it to start up again. But that's another story. So my questions are:

When is the best time to pump if I need to prepare a bottle or two a few days a week and how much bm should I pump out?

How long does it take to pump a full feeding's worth of bm? When do I know when I'm "done"?

Also, how long can I store BM in the freezer? What about in the fridge?

Re: Questions from a brand new pumper!

When I started I started pumping (both sides) for about 20-30 minutes each morning after the first am feeding. I didn't get much at first, but after a few weeks I was getting a lot more. Eventually I was able to pump one side and feed on the other. You just have to keep doing it so that your body gets the message to make a lot of milk at that time. HTH.

Your flow will stop and start up several times. That's how the let down works. I don't know what kind of pump you have, but mine had a let down and stimulation button. When let down stopped I would push the button for stimulation, when the milk started again, push the button for expression.

Proud mom of 2:
DD 5/2008 nursed for 3 years and 3 months.
DS born 8/2011 nursing like a champ

Sorry for the short responses...always, always, always NAK or holding a baby